An imagewise exposed silver halide photographic material (hereinafter referred to as "photographic light-sensitive material" or "photographic material") is processed by the steps of color development, desilvering, washing, stabilization, etc. For the color developing process, a color developer is used. For the desilvering process, a bleach solution, a fix solution, and/or a bleach-fix (blix) solution is used. For washing, tap water, well water, chemical-treated water, physically treated water, ion-exchanged water, or distilled water is used. For the stabilization process, a stabilization solution is used.
On the other hand, a black and white photographic light-sensitive material is processed using a black and white developer in place of a color developer, and then fixed and washed.
Each processing solution is generally adjusted to a temperature of from 20.degree. C. to 50.degree. C. A color photographic light-sensitive material or black and white light-sensitive material is processed, after imagewise exposure, by immersion in these processing solutions.
For commercial processing of photographic light-sensitive materials, there is a need to provide stable and excellent processing performance using minimal amounts of processing solution for reducing costs and manual labor, to reduce the load of pollution, to reduce the size of the processing apparatus, and to further improve the commercial value of the product.
For obtaining a stable processing performance, the composition of the processing solution must always be kept within a constant range. For obtaining excellent performance, a photographic light-sensitive material must be uniformly immersed in a sufficient amount of each processing solution to prevent uneven processing.
Accordingly, in commercial photographic processing of color photographic light-sensitive materials, an automatic processor having processing tanks each containing a larger amount of each processing solution as in a photographic laboratory or an automatic processor is designed such that upon processing of a predetermined amount of a color photographic light-sensitive material, a replenisher for replenishing each processing solution is automatically supplied to the fatigued processing solution to maintain the composition of each processing solution contained in the tank within a constant range.
Such a continuous replenishing system provides good results in the case of processing a large amount of color photographic material in a predetermined amount each day. In the system, a replenisher is supplied in proportion to the processed amount of color photographic light-sensitive material. When the processing amount of the color photographic material is relatively small, the change in concentration of components of the processing solutions by the evaporation of water and air oxidation, decomposition, etc., exceeds consumption (due strictly to processing of the photographic material). Thus, by adding a replenisher based on the processed areas of the color photographic material, the composition of the processing solution can not be kept within the desired composition range such that stable and excellent processing performance is not obtained.
Recently, with the variety of consumers, preferences, the requirement of obtaining color prints as quick as possible, and the requirement of offering color photographic processing as a secondary service, photographic processing of photographic light-sensitive materials is quickly turning from concentrated processing in a large-scale laboratory to dispersed-type small quantity processing, and additional small quantity quick processing by mini-laboratories or by other small compact processors. Particularly, in the latter low utilization processing, the above-described disadvantages in the continuous replenishing system are pronounced.
On the other hand, there is also a similar tendency in the processing of black and white photographic light-sensitive materials, and particularly, in replenishing processing by a small-sized processor and additionally in low utilization processing employing replenishing processing by a small-sized rapid processor. The disadvantages in the continuous replenishing system are also pronounced as in the case of color processing.
As a method of solving the above-described problems, there are proposed (1) a method of properly using two kinds of replenishers, i.e., replenishing a replenisher according to the processed amount of the photographic light-sensitive material, and replenishing with another replenisher to compensate for the deterioration of the processing solution with the passage of time (e.g., by the evaporation of water, the oxidation and decomposition of components of the processing composition and the fatigue of processing solution with the passage of time) as described, e.g., in JP-A-56-1054 and JP-A-58-44438, (2) a method of automatically setting the amount of the replenisher based on the finished state of processed control strips as descried in JP-A-60-48042 and JP-A-60-133450, (3) a method of adding "Fuji Reviving Solution", a replenisher made by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., when a smaller amount of a photographic light-sensitive material is being processed, (4) a method of increasing the amount of replenisher, and (5) a method of replacing all of the processing solution with a fresh processing solution when the fatigue of the processing solution can not be recovered by a replenisher alone.
However, the method (1) requires two kinds of replenishing solutions and additional processing space, requiring increased work in the preparation of replenishing solutions and increased processing space. The replenishing method (1) is complicated because two kinds of replenishers are provided such that it is difficult to efficiently practice the method in terms of labor and time.
Also, since the method (2) requires a concentration measuring device and a computer for feed back of the measured result to adjust the replenishing amount and software for operating the computer, which equipment is very expensive, there are limitations on the method with respect to economy and space for implementing these devices.
The method (3) requires additional chemicals as well as experience as to the time and the amount of addition of the replenisher such that it is difficult to practice this method.
In the method (4), the increase in the amount of chemicals results in increased costs. Also, an experience is required regarding the time and the amount of addition of the chemicals, such that it is difficult and unattractive to practice this method. Furthermore, even by applying this method, sufficient correction is not obtained. When a small amount of the photographic light-sensitive material is processed, the method does not provide good results.
Although the method (5) is readily practiced, the processing solutions are always replaced in the case of low utilization processing, such that the method is not cost effective.
On the other hand, as a method of reducing the change in the content of the components of the processing solutions in low utilization processing, there is proposed a method of processing with a slit-type processor, i.e., a processor which reduces the amount of processing solution and reduces the area of the interface between each processing solution and the ambient air as described in JP-A-63-131138, JP-A-63-259662, JP-A-63-259661, and JP-U-63-148944 (the term "JP-U" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese utility model application").
However, in the above described method, the photographic light-sensitive material being processed must pass through a slit-form liquid passageway. Hence, as the amount of the processing solution is reduced, the processor size is reduced. It then becomes increasingly difficult to surely transport the photographic light-sensitive material, such that this method has not yet been practically used.
As a method for processing a photographic light-sensitive material with a small amount of processing solution, there are known (1) a process of processing with a viscous developer, (2) drum development processing, (3) round tank development processing by a Nikor-type developing tank, and (4) a processing by processing device "Darkless" (manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.). In these methods, a so-called disposable processing is possible since the amount of the processing solution used is relatively less. Therefore, constant photographic performance can be obtained.
However, as to the method (1) described above, as a method of processing by applying a viscous processing composition onto an imagewise exposed photographic light-sensitive material, a diffusion transfer photographic processing method is known. In this method, for uniformly applying the processing composition to a photographic light-sensitive material, the photographic light-sensitive material must have a "dike" for preventing the processing composition from spilling from the photographic material. Even when a "dike" is provided, the processing of a photographic material having a large area is uneven. Thus, the method can be used for specific applications only.
In the method (2) described above, a photographic light-sensitive material is wound around a drum and a part of the drum is immersed in a small amount of a processing solution contained in a plate or dish disposed below the drum. However, since in this method the processing solution is brought into contact with air during processing, the processing composition tends to become oxidized, and stable processing performance is difficult to obtain.
In the method (3), an imagewise exposed photographic film is swirlingly wound around a Nikor-type reel. The Nikor-type reel having the wound film is placed in a container called a round tank, about 500 ml of a processing solution is placed in the round tank from the upper portion thereof, and the reel is turned by hand at an angle of from 30 to 60 degree at a rate of 60 r.p.m. at least 5 times for one processing, or the round tank is rotated on a rotator to perform processing. When the system is disposable batch processing and the operator has good experience, relatively stable processing performance is obtained, but too much processing solution is used for the amount of photographic light-sensitive material being processed. If in this method, the same processing solution is used repeatedly to process a number of photographic films for purposes of economy, as a matter of course, stable processing performance is not obtained.
In the method (4), when a Darkless processor made by Fuji Photo Film Co., is used, one black and white film strip (12 pictures, 20 pictures, or 24 pictures) can be processed using 8 ml of a developer and 7 ml of a fix solution. However, since in this method the film is processed in a shrinked and coiled state as a wound spring, the operator must be trained to regularly rotate the rotary axis of the processor to provide swirling.
Furthermore, on detailed evaluation of the whole processed film, it has been confirmed that the processing performance is not the same between the core side and the outer side of the rolled film and hence when the same scene is photographed, it is necessary to print the scene in the first part and the scene in the end part of the processed film strip by changing color tones.
On the other hand, photographed photographic films have hitherto been processed using an automatic processor but recently, a method of more easily and quickly processing photographic films has been developed. As an example, a method of processing a photographed film in a patrone (cartridge) containing the film (hereinafter, is referred to as cartridge development) has been proposed.
In the cartridge development, processing solutions such as a developer, a bleach solution, a fix solution, wash water, etc., are successively supplied to a long film contained in a cartridge in a wound state from one side end portion of the wound film and then the film is dried.
However, in such a cartridge development, each processing solution is passed through the wound film in which the adjacent films are in close contact with each other. Hence, portions exist wherein the processing solution is not passed, or on the contrary, larger spaces than necessary are formed between adjacent films. Thus, each processing solution is not uniformly supplied to the whole surface of the emulsion layer of the photographic film to result in uneven processing such that the technique of cartridge development is not yet satisfactory.